Yoga Day USA lists "Top 10 Reasons to Try Yoga for Life"
on their website www.YogaDayUSA.org

Unfortunately, most of their
reasons have little to do with
authentic, traditional Yoga.

REASON #1. YOGA FOR STRESS RELIEF:
Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on
the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps
to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Related benefits include lowering blood pressure
and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting
the immune system as well as easing symptoms
of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue,
asthma and insomnia.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Most people in the West, and also many in India,
confuse Yoga with Hatha Yoga, the system of
bodily postures. But Yoga is primarily a spiritual
discipline.
(Paramahansa Yogananda)

REASON #2. YOGA FOR PAIN RELIEF:
Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that
practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a
combination of the two, reduced pain for people
with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis,
auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as
arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic
conditions. Some practitioners report that even
emotional pain can be eased through the practice
of yoga.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Yoga has become the health and fitness system
of choice. This is odd because it is the mind -
not the body - that is the main target of all genuine
Yoga practices .... To regard Yoga primarily as a
set of practices for increasing strength and
flexibility while calming the nervous system is
to mistake the husk for the kernel.
(Pandit Rajmani Tigunait)

REASON #3. YOGA FOR BETTER BREATHING:
Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths.
This helps to improve lung function, trigger the
body's relaxation response and increase the amount
of oxygen available to the body.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Like many arts and sciences that are profound,
beautiful, and powerful, yoga has suffered from
the spiritual poverty of the modern world--it has
been trivialized, watered down, or reduced to
cliches. The deep and eternal essence of yoga
has been misrepresented and packaged for
personal profit by clever people.
(Bhole Prabhu)

REASON #4. YOGA FOR FLEXIBILITY:
Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility,
increasing range of movement and reducing aches
and pains. Many people can't touch their toes during
their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the
correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons
and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making
more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body
alignment resulting in better posture and helping to
relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
In ancient times hatha Yoga was practiced for
many years as a preparation for higher states of
consciousness. Now however, the real purpose
of this great science is being altogether forgotten .
The hatha Yoga practices which were designed
by the rishis and sages of old, for the evolution
of mankind, are now being understood and
utilized in a very limited sense.
(Swami Satyananda Saraswati)

REASON #5. YOGA FOR INCREASED STRENGTH:
Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the
body, helping to increase strength literally from
head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen
the body, they also provide an additional benefit
of helping to relieve muscular tension.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Yoga is not mere acrobatics . Some people suppose
that Yoga is primarily concerned with the
manipulation of the body into various queer
positions, standing on the head, for instance, or
twisting about the spine, or assuming any of the
numerous odd poses which are demonstrated in
the text-books on Yoga. These techniques are
correctly employed in one distinct type of Yoga
practice, but they do not form an integral part of
the most essential type. Physical posture serve
at best as an auxiliary, or a minor form of Yoga.
(Swami Chidananda Saraswati)

REASON #6. YOGA FOR
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:
Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight
control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels
as well as by burning excess calories and
reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy
eating habits and provides a heightened sense of
well being and self esteem.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Many false and incomplete teachings have been
propagated in its name, it has been subject to
commercial exploitation, and one small aspect
of Yoga is often taken to be all of Yoga. For
instance, many people in the West think it is a
physical and beauty cult, while others think it
is a religion. All of this has obscured the real
meaning of Yoga.
(Swami Rama)

REASON #7. YOGA FOR
IMPROVED CIRCULATION:
Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result
of various poses, more efficiently moves
oxygenated blood to the body's cells.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
Through the discipline of Yoga, both actions and
intelligence go beyond these qualities [gunas] and
the seer comes to experience his own soul with
crystal clarity, free from the relative attributes of
nature and actions. This state of purity is samadhi.
Yoga is thus both the means and the goal. Yoga
is samadhi and samadhi is Yoga.
(B. K. S. Iyengar)

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
The main objective of hatha Yoga is to create an
absolute balance of the interacting activities and
processes of the physical body, mind and energy.
When this balance is created, the impulses
generated give a call of awakening to the central
force (sushumna nadi) which is responsible for
the evolution of human consciousness. If hatha
Yoga is not used for this purpose, its true
objective is lost.
(Swami Satyananda Saraswati)

REASON #9. YOGA FOR
FOCUS ON THE PRESENT:
Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become
more aware and to help create mind body health.
It opens the way to improved concentration,
coordination, reaction time and memory.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
The goal of Yoga is Yoga itself, union itself, of the
little self and the True Self, a process of awakening
to the preexisting union that is called Yoga.
Yoga has to do with the realization through direct
experience of the preexisting union between Atman
and Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and
Shiva and Shakti, or the realization of Purusha
standing alone as separate from Prakriti.
(Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati)

REASON #10. YOGA FOR INNER PEACE:
The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach
a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place
in their lives. Many who begin to practice for
other reasons have reported this to be a key reason
that yoga has become an essential part of their
daily lives.
(This finally touches on the real reasons for Yoga
by mentioning that it is for "spiritual" reasons.)

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOGA:
You use the body as a medium to bring the mind
back to the brain. Perfect marriage between body
and mind. Then, you can reach and knock the
door to the spirit....
Yoga is free. It belongs to the earth. It's a god.
(Bikram Choudhury)

Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.